StarTech.com 2 Port PCI Express SuperSpeed USB 3.0 Card Adapter PEXUSB3S2
- SuperSpeed USB 3.0 connectivity at up to 5 Gbps and 80% more power than USB 2.0
- Dual profile design to fit into Full or Low Profile/small form factor (SFF) systems
- Backed by a StarTech.com lifetime warranty and free lifetime technical support
- Provides two external USB 3.0 connections
- Fully compliant with USB 3.0 revision 1.0 specifications and Intel xHCI rev0.96 specifications, with transfer rates up to 5 Gbps
- Backwards compatible with USB 2.0 and USB 1.0/1.1 devices
- Built-in optional LP4 Molex power connector for bus-powered USB devices
- Optionally provides up to 900mA per USB port
Add 2 USB 3.0 ports to your desktop computer through a PCI Express expansion slotProviding speeds up to 10x faster than that of USB 2.0, this PCI Express USB 3.0 card enables you to access your data and transfer files much faster than USB 2.0, by adding two USB 3.0 ports to your PCI Express capable PC.Featuring a native NEC PCI Express host controller chipset, the new USB 3.0 standard supports transfer rates of up to 5Gbps, while still providing connectivity and support for the older USB 2.0 (48
List Price: $ 44.99
Price: $ 20.98
0%
good card, lousy instruction manual,
PROS
The box included a molex to SATA adapter (which I needed)
The box also contained two different kind of bay ports – helpful
Getting the card situated in my Dell Studio XPS 9100 was easy (in the back, not front)
CONS
The manual that comes with it is a complete waste of time
The CD did not autorun and I could not locate the proper file on it to run
AND you CAN get around this by going to: (I posted the link, but Amazon stripped it: go to the startech website and click on support, click on product manuals and driver downloads,
then plug in the model name: pexusb3s2 you’ll see three files download the manual and the driver.)
I downloaded both the manual which is better than the one in the box and the driver which is more expedient and is updated.
So – I was able to install it and it is working fine, though it required patience. I’m glad I have a bit of a background in this. If you’ve never installed a
card before, you might feel totally lost.
As for the seller: the product arrived with the speed of lightning (well, almost) and in good shape
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|Works fantastic with Windows 7 64-bit on Dell XPS 9000 computer,
My StarTech.com 2 Port PCI Express SuperSpeed USB 3.0 Card Adapter (PEXUSB3S2) review:
With the exception of the instruction manual not specifying exactly which folder on the CD contained the “setup.exe” file for this product I have no complaints with the installation or performance of this USB 3.0 card adapter. The file is located at
PCIeNEC uPD720200setup.exe on the CD and is the same version as the one on their website.
The file transfer speed from my internal hard drive to the external 3TB Western Digital drive (purchased at Costco on sale for $109.99) was about 105 Megabytes/sec – much faster than the same drive plugged into the motherboard’s USB 2.0 port. The USB 3.0 port speed matched that of transfering files between two internal SATA drives.
Because all of my computer’s SATA power supply connectors were being used (three internal hard drives and two Blu-Ray drives) I had to buy a six dollar SATA power supply “Y” (splitter) cable assembly to connect with the supplied power cable of the USB 3.0 card adapter but if you have a spare SATA power connector in your computer you will not have to buy anything beyond what comes in the box.
Once you install the driver the Windows 7 device manager should show “Renesas Electronics USB 3.0 Host Controller” and “Renesas Electronics USB 3.0 Root Hub” under the “Universal Serial Bus controllers” section.
I highly recommend this product!
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UPDATE: December 2, 2011
So far no problems with this product. I did want to add that the data transfer rate will depend on if you are transferring one huge file (as in my test results mentioned above) or transferring hundreds of little files. In the latter case I noticed the rate dropped down to about 30 MB/sec. This has nothing to do with the card but rather the extra time needed for the hard drive to seek out and find each file. The same thing happens when you are transferring hundreds of little files between two internal hard drives.
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|Windows 7 64-bit driver not digitally signed,
Microsoft is REQUIRING that drivers be digitally signed. However, STARTECH does not want to pay the ransom to Microsoft so if you’re using Windows 7 64-bit then this is USELESS to you – unless of course you’re a hobbyist or you are someone who likes to jig with your system to make this work by disabling security feature etc. But if you’re a NORMAL person with other things to do when you’re done with computer related work then skip this product.
Note, this may work with Windows 32-bit, Vista, etc – didn’t try it. But be wary, this could be incompatible with Windows 8.
If someone convinces me I’ve got this all wrong comment to this and I’ll amend this review.
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